www.maderatribune.comServing the Heart of California since 1892http://www.maderatribune.com/node/6878/atom.xml2015-03-31T22:16:35+00:00http://www.maderatribune.com/news/breast-cancer-turns-woman-fighter2013-10-24T03:54:32+00:002013-10-26T00:17:14+00:00Breast cancer turns woman into a fighterwebmaster

“When the doctor first told me that I had breast cancer the very first thing I thought was I was going to die,” Arellano said. “I’m just being honest. I thought it was the end because I wasn’t really educated in what breast cancer is or what it does.”

Invasive ductal carcinoma — the most common breast cancer at around 80 percent of all breast cancer diagnoses — was in stage III and had already spread to Arellano’s lymph nodes.

For some, the diagnosis that Arellano, a 36-year-old general manager of a Hooters restaurant in Bakersfield, received March 14 could have been a sign for her or her family to quit...